6yo girl missing in London, Greenwich - has now been found (updated by MNHQ)

[Theremedy]

From the BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce58e7mjlxko

Mumsnet seems to have quite a large London population I thought it couldn’t hurt to spread the word. I can’t even imagine how scared a 6 year old would be out alone all night.

I've lived in Thamesmead and it's not as bad as some on here are saying. Like any area, it has it's issues.

I think people may not have realised she was in her pyjama's. My experience of Thamesmead is that it is more common for children to play out.

There is a vocal number on here that are enraged if someone so much as smiles at their child, let alone speak to them. People, sadly are worried of approaching children.

The proximity of the Thames is a worry, people do sit on the 'beach,' when the tide is out.

I agree with people saying not to speculate further about the family situation until further news announcements are made.

Right, but they've decanted the same tenants from the old blocks into the new blocks so the social issues remain. Once the negative dynamic exists, it's hard to eradicate.

@incognit out of curiosity aren’t you worried about repercussions if something goes wrong leaving brownies? Any activity my primary aged children have done requires parental collection. I’ve seen a few where over 12s can have parental permission to leave alone with signed consent forms but doesn’t it put you at terrible risk personally if something happens to one of the girls?

What are you talking about? I love Thamesmead. "Same old people"? That is my children and me you are talking about. Incidentally between the 3 of us we have 3 bachelors and 5 postgraduate degrees. All of us are professional. What is your definition of "rough"? I expect some of the detractors are "rougher" than us, based on the level of intelligence shown in some posts.

Where I live, (considered a deprived, rundown, ex-mining area) it isn’t uncommon to see small groups of children as young as 6 out playing without adult supervision.

Although personally, if I saw one young child alone I would definitely stay with them and look around for their parents and then call the police if they weren’t around.

What are you talking about? I love Thamesmead. "Same old people"? That is my children and me you are talking about. Incidentally between the 3 of us we have 3 bachelors and 5 masters degrees. All of us are professional. What is your definition of "rough"? I expect some of the detractors are "rougher" than us, based on the level of intelligence shown in some posts

But not everyone on the estate fits the same description. The drug problem there, for eg, has never gone away. You know all this.

Yeah I don't think it's fair to say how did people not speak to her, well I would just assume her adult is watching or nearby. There are kids who go out in PJs and there are clothes that look like PJs. Specially since it's the summer holiday, I wouldn't find it unusual to see a child out on a residential patch of grass. Some parents get very defensive and scary if they feel their parenting is questioned. "why are you talking to my child? Mind your own business? Who the F are you?"...and so on.

The more puzzling thing is how her parents or adult only reported it at nearly 11pm but some families live in difficult and even chaotic lifestyles.

But you’ve contradicted yourself. You’re defending it, saying it’s not rough and a great community. But in the same post, you’re admitting there are neglectful parents who allowed their children to walk home from Brownies alone. ‘A lot’ is what you said.

So it is a bit rough then isn’t it, if that’s the standard of parenting?

I fear there is a racist element as well, we all know and it has been documented that when the victim is white (and more so if they are also attractive) they get noticed, helped and looked after a lot more. If this was a blonde white child maybe someone would have helped more but I guess they assumed a child from poor background, probably nothing unusual that they would be in PJ and playing out alone, that her parents might be quite rough and rude about it if you try and ask the girl if she's ok. It's absolutely heartbreaking that this baby is in this situation, it absolutely isn't her fault but the result of her own family circumstances and society we live in where people are racists and too cautious to speak and help each other.

Plenty wouldn't though. My child escaped from the house when they were two and wandered off down the middle of the road. It's a quiet residential road but awful to think back on. A man down the road who recognised dc from his garden came running to find me, but didn't touch dc or remove dc from the road first! Because he was afraid I or someone else would make allegations against him. I found that very sad.

Yes we were worried, we didn't like it. But weirdly, as many people pointed out at the time, no one is likely to have dared accost a little girl with the number of drug dealers hanging around who would have protected them 😂I am joking a bit, but not entirely, because in a way it was true.

Anyway, we did enforce collection at the end of the evening in the dark, but nothing we could do if a child just took off, and of course nothing we could do if they were arriving alone.

And in many years, nothing bad ever happened.

The biggest problem on Thamesmead is drugs, particularly cannabis, and the related paranoia, psychosis, etc which leaves people unemployable. But it is a minority. As a teacher, I am aware of the dangers of getting drawn into drug dealing for our young teens, and into money laundering (worse, more insidious and the brighter, more ambitious children are easily ensnared)

It isn't particularly bad though. I have worked in other areas and this one is not a lot worse, than say a more affluent looking town in Berkshire.

People are insulting Thamesmead without any knowledge of it. Yes, some very poor people live here. But they are not all druggies and criminals, you know! Many are hard working, intelligent and aspirational.

Kate and Jerry McCann's standard of parenting was to leave their 3 kids in a hotel room alone whilst they went out drinking and dining with their mates.
Apparently that's suitable neglect because they live in a nice detached house???

This is really really shocking
First I thought she must have just gone missing earlier nighttime but when I looked closer it seems she went out in the middle of the day but wasn't reported missing till nighttime!!!
I'm not one to jump to judge in these cases where children go missing and hurt etc usually but wow!
I don't know who is it was her parents or someone else who was supposed to be looking after her

The proximity of the Thames is a worry, people do sit on the 'beach,' when the tide is out.

I'm upriver next to the Thames - yes quite a few people do venture onto the beach at low tide, just for a wander or mudlarking with metal detectors.

I hope the poor child is found soon, safe and well.

Why didn't you secure the house? You were irresponsible and very lucky nothing worse happened. We shouldn't hold back judgement just because there are other parents who have similarly failed to keep their children safe.

Yes I was irresponsible of me. And yes I was VERY lucky. The idea of what could have happened still makes me think 'but there for the grace of God go I'. Life would never have been the same. The front door was closed, but DS turned the lock which was halfway down the door. The way our door worked, in order to prevent opening from inside required you to double lock yourself in. I usually did this, and checked the night before so DS couldn't open it by chance in the morning, but I was very sleep deprived and overlooked it that day.

With regards to this incident, we are going to judge of course, but we shouldn't judge too much before we know all the factors and variables. We simply don't know know what situation the parent(s) or carers are in.

Not reporting until so late could be indicative of parents who have had prior dealings with Social Services and want to hide their incompetence. Or parents who are addicts or parents both working who are too poor to afford childcare or a single mother really struggling. It's not unusual to see children left at home even with siblings in some parts of London today, while parents are working. We unfortunately haven't succeeded in levelling up or whatever nice spin intiative the government comes up with enough.

In some ways things have gone backwards. My aunt used to live on the notorious Camden Estate back in the 80s. Back then they had a drop in creche for younger kids and a drop off youth club for older children. Sign in, drop off and pick up how many hours later.

None of this exists now.

Regardless of the estate etc (I grew up on a very rough council estate known so I know them better than most). I think we can all agree that it is parental neglect not to know where your 6 year old is at 10.40pm? I have a 6 year and live in suburbia and know where she is at every minute of the day. She is not allowed in the garden alone, never mind a patch of grass outside some flats.

And even if in some world I decided a 6 year old was ok alone playing in her pjs - I would absolutely know she was missing before 10.40pm! Even in the summer holidays that is incredibly late for a 6 year to be awake, never mind outside.

I am not willing to give the parents a break because of any of the things mentioned here - PND, chaotic lifestyles, mental health etc. It is neglect. Plain and simple.

Oh god that poor little girl. It’s hard not to imagine the worst re her family if it took 12 hours to report her missing.

I hope she’s ok,

Oh gosh that video. Shes so little. I hope she’s found safe and well, poor thing must be terrified.

From the video I can only see one person walking by, and maybe two cars/vans. Obviously this is only a few moments and she has been missing for hours, but if I was driving past and saw a child happily playing on a piece of grass outside flats on a summers day I wouldn’t stop to ask if they were okay.

There's some CCTV footage now on the BBC site.

Someone walks past, she appears to be at the edge of a car park and a couple of cars drive by.

Surely you would ask a small child where mum or dad was?

My fear is she is in the river

Kate and Jerry McCann's standard of parenting was to leave their 3 kids in a hotel room alone whilst they went out drinking and dining with their mates.
Apparently that's suitable neglect because they live in a nice detached house???

Have you ever heard anyone ever say that the McCanns decisions were "suitable neglect"?

It wasn't visible to everyone that MM was alone.

That's what the discussion is about. Why nobody was concerned to see her playing alone.

Anyway, I think the reason is because it was usual and not an aberration and maybe those that did see here didn't clock the PJs.

But it is true that council estate tenants have to put up with more than their fair share of problematic neighbours.

Can you imagine approaching a kid who appears alone and asking them where are your mum and dad? And the child shouts fuck off you paedo, kid screaming and running away, people reporting the adult to police or the child retelling the story badly and his adults report you to the police... it can escalate.

"There's some CCTV footage now on the BBC site.

Someone walks past, she appears to be at the edge of a car park and a couple of cars drive by.

Surely you would ask a small child where mum or dad was?"

Well yes 🙄 it's in the OPs link and that's what everyone has been discussing if you RTFT